Eva Mendes is habit-forming. Once you place her in front of a camera, you’ll want to do it again. The Cuban-born actress has captivated renowned photographers like Mario Testino, Steven Klein (who shot her for several international Calvin Klein campaigns) and Ellen von Unwerth as well as visionary filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez, Werner Herzog and Larry David. Even Woody Allen, who is notorious for giving actors only three minutes to audition, kept her in the room for an additional seven.

In person, Mendes is elusive and cool, tough yet quietly vulnerable — in short, she’s the type of woman you can’t help but fall a little bit in love with. Unfortunately however, the competition is about as tough as it gets. She has been with actor Ryan Gosling for years, but in true Eva fashion, she won’t disclose how long they have really been together.

Gosling is that rare breed in Hollywood: a gentleman. Yet rather than play up their status as a power couple, Mendes has kept their relationship largely out of the spotlight. When the public does catch a glimpse of the pair (as when paparazzi photos surfaced of the two cavorting around Paris) their chemistry is undeniable. Thus, it wasn’t surprising to learn they welcomed a daughter, Esmeralda Amada, in September. “I’m completely exhausted,” admits Mendes of becoming a first-time mom at 40. “I thought my wild nights were over but these are some of the wildest nights I’ve ever had.”

As it happens, Mendes’s days are busy too. A well-known jewelry connoisseur (who can forget the show-stopping Van Cleef & Arpels turquoise collar necklace she wore to the 2009 Golden Globes), she has begun designing a line of vintage-inspired baubles for her New York & Company collection. Pieces like a faux mother of pearl choker and crystal waterfall earrings fit seamlessly into the VIOLET GREY photo shoot, for which Mendes channeled a cinematic bohemian.

VIOLET GREY staged the shoot at Mann’s Chinese Theater (now known as the TCL Chinese Theater) in Hollywood, as an homage to the fact that Mendes’s own mother had worked there in the 1980s. “As a kid, I would often tag along with her,” she recalled. “She’d have on this red cheongsam dress that all female employees had to wear and I just thought she looked so gorgeous.”

The accompanying interview, which was conducted by Mendes’ longtime friend and confidante, VIOLET GREY founder Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, is the first that she has given since her pregnancy. Yet far from being guarded, she proved open and talkative, discussing everything from the parenting values she shares with Ryan to her excitement about her expanding New York & Company collection to the comfort she gets from the chatter in online mom forums.

Read the conversation, below.